Charles Richard Sharpe

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Charles Richard Sharpe Template:Post-nominals (2 April 1889 – 18 February 1963) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Charles Sharpe was a farmer's boy from Pickworth,<ref name="Pickworth">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> near Bourne, Lincolnshire, who ran away from home to join the army at the age of sixteen.Template:Sfn He had served with the 2nd battalion in the Bermuda Garrison before the war, arriving on the Western Front with that battalion 6 November 1914.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

He was an acting corporal in the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment,<ref name="Lincolnshire">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> British Army and 26 years old when the following deed took place during the Battle of Aubers Ridge in First World War for which he was awarded the VC.

He later achieved the rank of company sergeant major. He left the army in 1928.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On return to civilian life, he worked at a number of jobs, notably as a physical training instructor to boys at the Hereward Camp approved school at Bourne. In World War II a number of bombs were dropped on the approved school, a row of wooden huts adjacent to Bourne Woods that may have been mistaken for a military camp; Sharpe was injured.Template:Cn

While staying in Workington with his daughter, Mrs Dorothy Foster, Sharpe died on 18 February 1963 of cerebral thrombosis after suffering a fall four days earlier and fracturing several of his ribs.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Medal

His medal is held by South Kesteven District Council, Grantham.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Bibliography

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External links

• Location of grave and VC medal (Lincolnshire)